Victoria has now abolished limitation periods within which to sue for injury arising out of child abuse.
These amendments resulted from a recommendation from the Betrayal of Trust inquiry in Victoria that the Limitations of Action Act be amended to exclude child abuse from the operation of the limitation periods under that Act. The changes commenced on 1 July 2015.
There will now be no time limit within which to sue if an action is founded on the death or personal injury of a person resulting from:
acts or omissions that is physical abuse or sexual abuse against the person when he or she was a minor; and
psychological abuse that arises out of the abuse.
A court will determine what is “physical abuse”, “sexual abuse” and “psychological abuse” by reference to the ordinary meaning of those words. “Psychological abuse” has been included to avoid doubt and allows claims to be made without limitation times in relation to psychological elements of physical or sexual abuse (an example given in the explanatory memorandum is where a child is erroneously made to feel complicit in physical or sexual abuse that has occurred).
These amendments mean that an action may now be brought at any time after the date on which the act or omission alleged to have resulted in the death or personal injury occurred. This is irrespective of the date of the relevant act or omission and irrespective of whether or not the action was subject to a limitation period at any time in the past.
The effect of these amendments is that a person who was the subject of sexual or physical abuse when a minor will not have to seek an extension of time within which to sue if the limitation periods for bringing such claims would have otherwise expired.
However, the abolition of limitation periods within which claims may be made does not limit a court’s power to summarily dismiss or permanently stay proceedings where the lapse of time has a burdensome effect on the defendant that is so serious that a fair trial is not possible. An example would be where crucial evidence has deteriorated or been lost over time.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-07-18 02:23:182015-07-18 02:23:18Gadens Lawyers, Child sexual abuse claims no longer subject to limitation periods in Victoria, Lexology
Men who say they were victims as children of clergy sexual abuse are protesting Bergen Catholic High School’s response to their claims against two Christian Brothers who they allege molested them in the 1960s and 1970s.
The men say the school has dragged its feet through settlement talks, now going on four months, and that officials never offered them an apology or counseling, a widely adopted practice in Catholic dioceses since the nationwide sexual abuse crisis exploded in 2002.
On Thursday, Road to Recovery, a victim’s advocacy group, raised those issues in a protest outside the high school, and one of the 19 claimants spoke publicly about how he felt newly victimized by school officials.
“I’ve been routinely brushed off by the powers that be at Bergen Catholic,” said Kobutsu Malone, 65, who started a website called bergencatholicabuse.com. “I’ve been ridiculed, my claims have been declared not viable, and all together I think these people are trying to sweep something under the rug.”
Malone said that when he attended the school at age 14, he was repeatedly molested by Brother Charles B. Irwin, who died in 1997. He and 18 men who say they were sexually abused as children by members of the Christian Brothers received part of a $16.5 million settlement against the religious order last year. Now they are pursuing legal remedies against the school. The claims concern Irwin and Brother John B. Chaney, who is living in the New York Archdiocese.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer representing Malone and four others, said the school offered an extremely low settlement and has ignored his clients’ requests.
“My clients are trying to move on with their lives, and Bergen Catholic is preventing that,” he said.
Thomas Herten, a lawyer representing Bergen Catholic, said in a statement that the school has been involved in a “good faith mediation” of the claims and that by doing so admitted to no liability or wrongdoing. He declined to comment further about any aspect of the case, including the decision not to offer therapy, citing confidentiality rules of the settlement process.
Bergen Catholic and the Christian Brothers are not bound by the policies set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Under those policies, the Archdiocese of Newark offers counseling to anyone who files an abuse claim involving its clergy, even if the claim turns out to lack merit.
But Robert Hoatson, founder of Road to Recovery, said the school should set its own policies that mirror that same level of concern.
“The first thing they have to have is therapy,” he said. “If these men preyed on young boys in this school for so many years, they have to do something to help these men recover. Their healing and recovery is crucial.”
He also decried the school’s lengthy deliberation of the claims. Some cases are settled as quickly as one day, he said.
“They’re dragging it out for some reason. We don’t know why,” Hoatson said.
Malone, who lives in Maine, said he was particularly concerned over the school’s defensive posture considering that 17 of the alleged victims have come forward with similar accounts of abuse by Irwin. He cited a February 2012 letter by the school’s president, Brother Brian M. Walsh, that said there were “no credible claims of sexual abuse.”
But Malone said that by that time, he and several others had come forward.
“They need to really recognize the amount of pain and damage they have done,” he said, “and they haven’t done that yet.”
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After the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden removed Edward Igle from active ministry in 2000 over an allegation of sexual abuse, he turned to his second career: family counseling.
Licensed as a therapist since the 1980s, the suspended priest runs a South Jersey practice, counseling families and children, and teaches related classes through a Philadelphia-based center, including on how to identify and clinically treat victims of sex abuse.
In 2011, church officials told New Jersey regulators about two men who claimed that Igle abused them in the 1970s. The diocese deemed both claims credible, a spokesman said, but too late under the statute of limitations to lead to prosecution.
The state has repeatedly renewed Igle’s licenses.
In interviews this month, Igle, 68, denied any misconduct. He called “inaccurate” any suggestion that the first abuse allegation forced him from ministry.
“I have never sexually abused anyone in my life,” he said last week at his Vineland family and marriage counseling practice, the Center for Relational Counseling.
He said that although he counsels children, he never meets alone with them. And when he teaches professionals about sex abuse, among other topics, he said he sometimes mentions that he was once accused of abuse.
He also said the diocese never informed him of a second allegation or that the first allegation was deemed credible.
A lawyer for the diocese said church officials did not know what had happened to Igle after they reported the claims to state licensing regulators.
Marion Lindblad-Goldberg, Igle’s boss at the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center, said Igle disclosed the sex-abuse allegation and said it was untrue. She said she believes him.
In an interview this year, she said he teaches postgraduate professionals on topics that include parental advice and dealing with sex abuse, and is among the best teachers she knows. Many of the center’s courses, Igle and Lindblad-Goldberg said, center on treating trauma.
Since the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted, many churches have sought to be more open about affected clergy.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Diocese of Wilmington post on their websites the names of priests who have been credibly accused of and removed for sexual abuse or misconduct. Philadelphia also includes photos.
The Diocese of Allentown doesn’t provide information about credibly accused priests on its website, but has a “Youth Protection” section on diocesan policy regarding sexual abuse, including contact information for victims’ assistance coordinators and phone numbers for children and youth services offices in the five counties of the diocese, where suspected abuse can be reported.
Since 2012, the diocese has prohibited anyone under 18 from being employed in rectories, parish offices or priests’ residences. It also bars minors from being admitted to those places unless they are accompanied by adults who aren’t clergy. Additionally, one-on-one pastoral care of children must be carried out in meeting spaces clearly visible to another staff member.
“If a diocese is serious about protecting children and families, they need to convey on their website that they have removed a priest because they believe their victims,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group that maintains an online database of abuse allegations. “Their names need to be in the public domain.”
In the early 2000s, the Camden Diocese found itself entrenched in the sex-abuse scandal. Sued multiple times over allegations involving dozens of priests, it paid out several million dollars in settlements.
In 2011, a man writing in a Richmond, Va., Catholic newspaper identified himself as one of the recipients.
In his account in the Catholic Virginian, the man, who identified himself only as “George,” detailed abuse he said he had suffered decades earlier at the hands of a priest at St. John Vianney parish in Deptford.
“I trusted this man with my life, and he abused his priesthood,” the alleged victim wrote. “That man ruined my life.”
He also wrote that the Camden Diocese had paid him a settlement, which he did not disclose.
The article did not name the accused priest. But Peter Feuerherd, then the diocesan spokesman, confirmed it was Igle. Igle was ordained in 1974 and worked during that decade in South Jersey parishes. He later served in other roles for the diocese, including as clinical director for Catholic Charities’ counseling program.
George’s claim was the second against him.
In the first, in 1994, a West Berlin man sued Igle, alleging the priest abused and raped him over several years in the 1970s, starting when he was 14.
That man first detailed his claim in a 2005 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has since died. (The newspaper does not identify alleged child sex-abuse victims.)
In an interview last month, the man’s mother said her son, a former altar boy, never recovered.
“At the time, we didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “We had Igle bless our marriage. We knew him.”
The suit was settled in 2000 for $7,500, and included a stipulation that Igle take a two-year leave of absence from the diocese, court documents show. Igle later applied to return, a lawyer for the church said, but was denied.
In the interview last week, Igle said the leave was “for personal reasons.” He declined to elaborate.
Igle has been licensed as a marriage and family therapist since 1982 and as a clinical social worker since 1994.
The creditors committee in the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis wants clergy sex abuse victims to have until next year to file claims against the church.
At this point, August 3 is the final day for submitting claims. The committee wants that date pushed back to May 25, 2016, which would align with the deadline the state Legislature has set for victims to file abuse claims.
In a court filing, Robert Kugler, the attorney for the creditors’ committee, notes the judge overseeing the case has expressed concerns about the breadth and effectiveness of archdiocese efforts to publicize the claims-filing deadline, especially for abuse victims. Kugler wrote that dozens of parishes have provided sketchy or no notice at all of the deadline in their online church bulletins.
Kugler said a May 2016 deadline could also speed resolution of abuse claims against parishes and marshal insurance resources to fund a global settlement with abuse survivors.
Parish insurers — many of whom also insure the Archdiocese — will not enter into any universal settlement until after May 25, 2016, according to Kugler.
“This is only logical since the parish insurers cannot be sure that the scope of any release will cover all potential parish claims until after the May 25, 2016 date passes,” Kugler wrote.
More than 170 abuse victims have filed claims against the archdiocese. At least 120 or so parishes are also filing claims, seeking as-yet-unspecified compensation for past and future costs related to resolving clergy sex abuse claims.
A hearing on the request is scheduled for July 30.
Full article: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/07/16/archdiocese-claim-deadline
PORTLAND, Maine — Former Catholic brother Michael Geilenfeld was cleared of sex abuse allegations in a controversial trial in Haiti. But those allegations resurfaced Thursday during Geilenfeld’s defamation lawsuit in federal court against Paul Kendrick, a Freeport resident who continued publicly to accuse Geilenfeld of sexually abusing minors after the trial in Haiti.
As the defamation trial neared the end of its second week in federal court in Portland, Kendrick’s attorney on Thursday introduced testimony from men in Haiti who allege that Geilenfeld abused them.
Geilenfeld, 63, and his nonprofit Hearts with Haiti in 2013 filed a lawsuit against Kendrick, 65, an advocate for victims of clergy sexual abuse, alleging that Kendrick waged a “campaign of vicious, unrelenting and merciless attacks” that damaged his reputation.
That left the North Carolina-based nonprofit for which he worked in Haiti unable to raise money to rebuild orphanages damaged in a massive 2010 earthquake, Geilenfeld has alleged.
In a pretrial brief filed last month, Geilenfeld’s attorney Peter DeTroy claimed his client’s damages “far exceed[ed] $10 million.” The charity has claimed losses of more than $2 million in donations, according to court documents.
Kendrick’s defense in the defamation case relies in part on seeking to prove that the allegations against Geilenfeld are true. Kendrick said Thursday he does not believe the victims were granted due process before courts in Haiti.
The defense for Kendrick presented its first witnesses Thursday who claim Geilenfeld abused them during stays at the Port au Prince orphanage Geilenfeld founded, called St. Joseph’s Home for Boys.
Daniel Madrigal, who now lives in Massachusetts, took the stand first, testifying in person that he eventually arrived at St. Joseph’s after a government crisis in 1994 led to the dissolution of the orphanage where he spent his early years.
“I slept in the street then,” Madrigal said.
He said he went to St. Joseph’s on the recommendation of a government social worker, where he received clean clothes, a place to stay and work in the kitchen. He said he was told he would start school the next year.
Madrigal claimed he was assaulted one day after Geilenfeld had given him a portable cassette player with two cassettes by Phil Collins and Bryan Adams.
“He touched my pants and said, ‘you’re cute,’” Madrigal said. “I didn’t speak English at that time.”
He claimed Geilenfeld later attempted to sexually assault him.
Madrigal’s claims of assault were echoed by a second witness, Jean Rony St. Victor, who also said he was abused by Geilenfeld as a minor.
Both witnesses claimed that Geilenfeld promised continued living stipends and travel in exchange for an unspecified “sacrifice.”
“(Geilenfeld) told me I had to ‘make the sacrifice” for the house, and I would live like a little prince,” St. Victor said in a sworn deposition taken in Port au Prince and played for the jury Thursday.
DeTroy, the attorney for Geilenfeld, declined to comment on the substance of the allegations Thursday, but noted that the testimony and depositions Thursday were not new to him or his client.
In opening arguments, DeTroy said his client is “a remarkable person … fueled by a dream to found a home for the cast-out, lost boys of Haiti.”
DeTroy rested his client’s case before the victim testimony began, after calling as a witness attorney Alain Lemithe, who defended Geilenfeld against abuse allegations in Haiti.
Lemithe discussed the process by which Geilenfeld was tried and requirements for those allegations to be proven before a judge.
“First and foremost, (a judge) needs some tangible proof,” Lemithe said. “Some certificates, some complaints and things that can lead him to conclude that indeed this act had happened.”
Court proceedings will resume at 9 a.m. Friday and are expected to enter a third week with closing arguments either Monday or Tuesday.
Full article: https://bangordailynews.com/2015/07/16/news/portland/men-alleging-priest-abused-them-in-haiti-testify-in-maine-defamation-trial/
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-07-18 02:10:202015-07-18 02:10:20Darren Fishell, Men alleging priest abused them in Haiti testify in Maine defamation trial, BDN
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has promised a new investigatation into sex abuse in the Church, if the Goddard Inquiry does not begin to look into it within six months.
The pledge was made during a private meeting with survivors of clerical abuse last week. On Tuesday, one participant, Lucy Duckworth, described Archbishop Welby’s move as “a desperate, shameful, last-ditch attempt”.
The delegation was led by the Vicar of St James’s, Briercliffe, the Revd Graham Sawyer, who chairs the Church Reform Group, accompanied by Ms Duckworth, who chairs Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS), and leaders of other survivors’ organisations.
A statement issued by the Church Reform Group on Monday said that the delegation had told Archbishop Welby that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, led by Justice Lowell Goddard, “could not possibly perform a comprehensive review of all alleged cases of abuse within the Church of England”. It had called on him to fund a “comprehensive independent audit of Anglican clergy abuse to operate in a parallel and complementary manner”.
A statement from Lambeth Palace confirmed: “The Archbishop said that he has asked that the Church of England is reviewed first by the Government’s National Inquiry once it begins its investigations. If this does not happen within six months, then he will instigate an independent-led past cases review. There was no commitment to any detail.”
The founder of Enough Abuse UK, Marilyn Hawes, told the BBC that she had “every hope and belief” that the Archbishop would follow up his words. The day was a “momentous one for the survivor community”.
Ms Duckworth said on Tuesday, however: “This was stated under duress of a judge-led statutory inquiry. The Church has not recognised the increase in individual cases we have presented them with — 400 per cent in six months — or made any adequate steps to supporting survivors. Until they do, this is nothing more than words for improved public relations.”
A barrister and spokeswoman for survivors of abuse in churches, Anne Lawrence, described the promise as “ridiculous posturing . . . An institution cannot ever look into its own failures to protect and safeguard children and the vulnerable. It is blinded by institutional, cultural, and relational dynamics which render a transparent open process impossible.”
The Church should have made its 2008-09 past cases review (News, 26 February 2010) “open and transparent”, she said. “The best thing the Archbishop can do is preserve the evidence contained within thousands of files, disclose the full content of the past cases review to the public inquiry and make it public if he wishes to have transparency.”
Julian Whiting, a former police officer and survivor of private school and church abuse, who attended the meeting at Lambeth Palace, said: “I trust Justin Welby. What I don’t trust is the bureacracy and administration around him allowing him to fufil his commitment to the church and to Christ.” He also questioned what was meant by “independent inquiry”.
“What is the concept and what does it actually mean?” he said. “Are they going to use langauge to try and ‘not have a problem’ which has stifled things moving forward before.”
He described the past cases review of 2008/9 as “shocking” and indicative of an approach that was “more about ‘how do we defend the organisation?’ as opposed to reaching out in the spirit of Christ to people who desperately need help, love and understanding”.
The Goddard Inquiry began on Thursday of last week, and is expected to last five years. The inquiry has been divide into five “workstreams”. The education and religion stream will be led by Professor Malcolm Evans, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol.
The General Synod gave final approval to new safeguarding legislation on Saturday. Provisions include increased powers for bishops to suspend priests and PCC members, and the removal of any time limit on when allegations of sexual abuse can be made. It will be an explicit offence of misconduct for clerics to disregard the House of Bishops’ safeguarding guidance.
The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, who speaks for the Bishops on safeguarding, told the Synod that he was considering the reinstatement of deposition from Holy Orders (“defrocking”) as a penalty in the Clergy Discipline Measure.
Presenting the new legislation, Bishop Butler said: “Alongside having to recognise, apologise for, and face up to the consequences of past failures, we also have to acknowledge that we do not always get it right in the present.”
Failures. Last week, a former cleric, Michael Studdert, lost his appeal to be allowed to spend time with boys under 16. He was prohibited from exercising any priestly ministry within the Church of England for the rest of his life in 2007 (News, 16 August 2007), after being sentenced to four years in prison for making indecent photos of children and possessing images for distribution.
Southwark Crown Court heard last week that he wanted to spent time with two Polish families. Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “The evidence before me shows this applicant is capable of being extremely cautious about disguising his interest in children.”
Also last week, a former Truro diocesan communications officer, Jeremy Dowling, aged 77, was sentenced to seven years in jail, after pleading guilty to 13 counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 and two counts of indecency with a child. He assaulted five children from 1959 to 1971, while he was working as a teacher in Devon (News, 12 June).
Separately, a former Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Revd Timothy Bavin OSB, has apologised for his handling of complaints about a former priest who has been convicted a second time of abusing children.
Last month, Terry Knight, aged 76, from Portsmouth, was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault against a boy aged 12 or 13, in the 1980s. He was jailed in 1996 after admitting to abusing seven boys aged 11-14 between 1975 and 1985, while serving at St Saviour’s, Stamshaw.
He was sent to see Bishop Bavin in 1985 by the then Archdeacon of Portsmouth, after a complaint from a parent. Bishop Bavin accepted his word that “inappropriate behaviour” would not happen again.
Last week, the retired Bishop apologised “unreservedly to all who were let down by me and by the Church”. He said that he had been unaware that physical assault had taken place. “I believed the situation had been resolved, and was horrified to discover later that this wasn’t the case.”
A statement from the diocese said: “We apologise unreservedly that the reaction of the Church in 1985 was not more robust, and that these actions may have put others at risk.” Safeguarding had since been “transformed”, it said.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-07-18 02:06:122015-07-18 02:06:12Madeleine Davies, Welby pledges new probe into abuse, Church Times
Gadens Lawyers, Child sexual abuse claims no longer subject to limitation periods in Victoria, Lexology
/in International /by SOL ReformVictoria has now abolished limitation periods within which to sue for injury arising out of child abuse.
These amendments resulted from a recommendation from the Betrayal of Trust inquiry in Victoria that the Limitations of Action Act be amended to exclude child abuse from the operation of the limitation periods under that Act. The changes commenced on 1 July 2015.
There will now be no time limit within which to sue if an action is founded on the death or personal injury of a person resulting from:
acts or omissions that is physical abuse or sexual abuse against the person when he or she was a minor; and
psychological abuse that arises out of the abuse.
A court will determine what is “physical abuse”, “sexual abuse” and “psychological abuse” by reference to the ordinary meaning of those words. “Psychological abuse” has been included to avoid doubt and allows claims to be made without limitation times in relation to psychological elements of physical or sexual abuse (an example given in the explanatory memorandum is where a child is erroneously made to feel complicit in physical or sexual abuse that has occurred).
These amendments mean that an action may now be brought at any time after the date on which the act or omission alleged to have resulted in the death or personal injury occurred. This is irrespective of the date of the relevant act or omission and irrespective of whether or not the action was subject to a limitation period at any time in the past.
The effect of these amendments is that a person who was the subject of sexual or physical abuse when a minor will not have to seek an extension of time within which to sue if the limitation periods for bringing such claims would have otherwise expired.
However, the abolition of limitation periods within which claims may be made does not limit a court’s power to summarily dismiss or permanently stay proceedings where the lapse of time has a burdensome effect on the defendant that is so serious that a fair trial is not possible. An example would be where crucial evidence has deteriorated or been lost over time.
Child sexual abuse claims no longer subject to limitation periods in Victoria – Lexology
Jeff Green, Advocates protest slow pace of Bergen Catholic talks over sex-abuse settlement, The Record
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformMen who say they were victims as children of clergy sexual abuse are protesting Bergen Catholic High School’s response to their claims against two Christian Brothers who they allege molested them in the 1960s and 1970s.
The men say the school has dragged its feet through settlement talks, now going on four months, and that officials never offered them an apology or counseling, a widely adopted practice in Catholic dioceses since the nationwide sexual abuse crisis exploded in 2002.
On Thursday, Road to Recovery, a victim’s advocacy group, raised those issues in a protest outside the high school, and one of the 19 claimants spoke publicly about how he felt newly victimized by school officials.
“I’ve been routinely brushed off by the powers that be at Bergen Catholic,” said Kobutsu Malone, 65, who started a website called bergencatholicabuse.com. “I’ve been ridiculed, my claims have been declared not viable, and all together I think these people are trying to sweep something under the rug.”
Malone said that when he attended the school at age 14, he was repeatedly molested by Brother Charles B. Irwin, who died in 1997. He and 18 men who say they were sexually abused as children by members of the Christian Brothers received part of a $16.5 million settlement against the religious order last year. Now they are pursuing legal remedies against the school. The claims concern Irwin and Brother John B. Chaney, who is living in the New York Archdiocese.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer representing Malone and four others, said the school offered an extremely low settlement and has ignored his clients’ requests.
“My clients are trying to move on with their lives, and Bergen Catholic is preventing that,” he said.
Thomas Herten, a lawyer representing Bergen Catholic, said in a statement that the school has been involved in a “good faith mediation” of the claims and that by doing so admitted to no liability or wrongdoing. He declined to comment further about any aspect of the case, including the decision not to offer therapy, citing confidentiality rules of the settlement process.
Bergen Catholic and the Christian Brothers are not bound by the policies set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Under those policies, the Archdiocese of Newark offers counseling to anyone who files an abuse claim involving its clergy, even if the claim turns out to lack merit.
But Robert Hoatson, founder of Road to Recovery, said the school should set its own policies that mirror that same level of concern.
“The first thing they have to have is therapy,” he said. “If these men preyed on young boys in this school for so many years, they have to do something to help these men recover. Their healing and recovery is crucial.”
He also decried the school’s lengthy deliberation of the claims. Some cases are settled as quickly as one day, he said.
“They’re dragging it out for some reason. We don’t know why,” Hoatson said.
Malone, who lives in Maine, said he was particularly concerned over the school’s defensive posture considering that 17 of the alleged victims have come forward with similar accounts of abuse by Irwin. He cited a February 2012 letter by the school’s president, Brother Brian M. Walsh, that said there were “no credible claims of sexual abuse.”
But Malone said that by that time, he and several others had come forward.
“They need to really recognize the amount of pain and damage they have done,” he said, “and they haven’t done that yet.”
Advocates protest slow pace of Bergen Catholic talks over sex-abuse settlement – Education – NorthJersey
Caitlin McCabe, Despite allegations, suspended priest thrives as family therapist, The Morning Call
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformAfter the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden removed Edward Igle from active ministry in 2000 over an allegation of sexual abuse, he turned to his second career: family counseling.
Licensed as a therapist since the 1980s, the suspended priest runs a South Jersey practice, counseling families and children, and teaches related classes through a Philadelphia-based center, including on how to identify and clinically treat victims of sex abuse.
In 2011, church officials told New Jersey regulators about two men who claimed that Igle abused them in the 1970s. The diocese deemed both claims credible, a spokesman said, but too late under the statute of limitations to lead to prosecution.
The state has repeatedly renewed Igle’s licenses.
In interviews this month, Igle, 68, denied any misconduct. He called “inaccurate” any suggestion that the first abuse allegation forced him from ministry.
“I have never sexually abused anyone in my life,” he said last week at his Vineland family and marriage counseling practice, the Center for Relational Counseling.
He said that although he counsels children, he never meets alone with them. And when he teaches professionals about sex abuse, among other topics, he said he sometimes mentions that he was once accused of abuse.
He also said the diocese never informed him of a second allegation or that the first allegation was deemed credible.
A lawyer for the diocese said church officials did not know what had happened to Igle after they reported the claims to state licensing regulators.
Marion Lindblad-Goldberg, Igle’s boss at the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Center, said Igle disclosed the sex-abuse allegation and said it was untrue. She said she believes him.
In an interview this year, she said he teaches postgraduate professionals on topics that include parental advice and dealing with sex abuse, and is among the best teachers she knows. Many of the center’s courses, Igle and Lindblad-Goldberg said, center on treating trauma.
Since the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted, many churches have sought to be more open about affected clergy.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Diocese of Wilmington post on their websites the names of priests who have been credibly accused of and removed for sexual abuse or misconduct. Philadelphia also includes photos.
The Diocese of Allentown doesn’t provide information about credibly accused priests on its website, but has a “Youth Protection” section on diocesan policy regarding sexual abuse, including contact information for victims’ assistance coordinators and phone numbers for children and youth services offices in the five counties of the diocese, where suspected abuse can be reported.
Since 2012, the diocese has prohibited anyone under 18 from being employed in rectories, parish offices or priests’ residences. It also bars minors from being admitted to those places unless they are accompanied by adults who aren’t clergy. Additionally, one-on-one pastoral care of children must be carried out in meeting spaces clearly visible to another staff member.
“If a diocese is serious about protecting children and families, they need to convey on their website that they have removed a priest because they believe their victims,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group that maintains an online database of abuse allegations. “Their names need to be in the public domain.”
In the early 2000s, the Camden Diocese found itself entrenched in the sex-abuse scandal. Sued multiple times over allegations involving dozens of priests, it paid out several million dollars in settlements.
In 2011, a man writing in a Richmond, Va., Catholic newspaper identified himself as one of the recipients.
In his account in the Catholic Virginian, the man, who identified himself only as “George,” detailed abuse he said he had suffered decades earlier at the hands of a priest at St. John Vianney parish in Deptford.
“I trusted this man with my life, and he abused his priesthood,” the alleged victim wrote. “That man ruined my life.”
He also wrote that the Camden Diocese had paid him a settlement, which he did not disclose.
The article did not name the accused priest. But Peter Feuerherd, then the diocesan spokesman, confirmed it was Igle. Igle was ordained in 1974 and worked during that decade in South Jersey parishes. He later served in other roles for the diocese, including as clinical director for Catholic Charities’ counseling program.
George’s claim was the second against him.
In the first, in 1994, a West Berlin man sued Igle, alleging the priest abused and raped him over several years in the 1970s, starting when he was 14.
That man first detailed his claim in a 2005 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has since died. (The newspaper does not identify alleged child sex-abuse victims.)
In an interview last month, the man’s mother said her son, a former altar boy, never recovered.
“At the time, we didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “We had Igle bless our marriage. We knew him.”
The suit was settled in 2000 for $7,500, and included a stipulation that Igle take a two-year leave of absence from the diocese, court documents show. Igle later applied to return, a lawyer for the church said, but was denied.
In the interview last week, Igle said the leave was “for personal reasons.” He declined to elaborate.
Igle has been licensed as a marriage and family therapist since 1982 and as a clinical social worker since 1994.
Despite allegations, suspended priest thrives as family therapist – The Morning Call
Martin Moylan, Archdiocese creditors want sex abuse claim deadline extended, MPR News
/in International /by SOL ReformThe creditors committee in the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis wants clergy sex abuse victims to have until next year to file claims against the church.
At this point, August 3 is the final day for submitting claims. The committee wants that date pushed back to May 25, 2016, which would align with the deadline the state Legislature has set for victims to file abuse claims.
In a court filing, Robert Kugler, the attorney for the creditors’ committee, notes the judge overseeing the case has expressed concerns about the breadth and effectiveness of archdiocese efforts to publicize the claims-filing deadline, especially for abuse victims. Kugler wrote that dozens of parishes have provided sketchy or no notice at all of the deadline in their online church bulletins.
Kugler said a May 2016 deadline could also speed resolution of abuse claims against parishes and marshal insurance resources to fund a global settlement with abuse survivors.
Parish insurers — many of whom also insure the Archdiocese — will not enter into any universal settlement until after May 25, 2016, according to Kugler.
“This is only logical since the parish insurers cannot be sure that the scope of any release will cover all potential parish claims until after the May 25, 2016 date passes,” Kugler wrote.
More than 170 abuse victims have filed claims against the archdiocese. At least 120 or so parishes are also filing claims, seeking as-yet-unspecified compensation for past and future costs related to resolving clergy sex abuse claims.
A hearing on the request is scheduled for July 30.
Full article: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/07/16/archdiocese-claim-deadline
Darren Fishell, Men alleging priest abused them in Haiti testify in Maine defamation trial, BDN
/in International /by SOL ReformPORTLAND, Maine — Former Catholic brother Michael Geilenfeld was cleared of sex abuse allegations in a controversial trial in Haiti. But those allegations resurfaced Thursday during Geilenfeld’s defamation lawsuit in federal court against Paul Kendrick, a Freeport resident who continued publicly to accuse Geilenfeld of sexually abusing minors after the trial in Haiti.
As the defamation trial neared the end of its second week in federal court in Portland, Kendrick’s attorney on Thursday introduced testimony from men in Haiti who allege that Geilenfeld abused them.
Geilenfeld, 63, and his nonprofit Hearts with Haiti in 2013 filed a lawsuit against Kendrick, 65, an advocate for victims of clergy sexual abuse, alleging that Kendrick waged a “campaign of vicious, unrelenting and merciless attacks” that damaged his reputation.
That left the North Carolina-based nonprofit for which he worked in Haiti unable to raise money to rebuild orphanages damaged in a massive 2010 earthquake, Geilenfeld has alleged.
In a pretrial brief filed last month, Geilenfeld’s attorney Peter DeTroy claimed his client’s damages “far exceed[ed] $10 million.” The charity has claimed losses of more than $2 million in donations, according to court documents.
Kendrick’s defense in the defamation case relies in part on seeking to prove that the allegations against Geilenfeld are true. Kendrick said Thursday he does not believe the victims were granted due process before courts in Haiti.
The defense for Kendrick presented its first witnesses Thursday who claim Geilenfeld abused them during stays at the Port au Prince orphanage Geilenfeld founded, called St. Joseph’s Home for Boys.
Daniel Madrigal, who now lives in Massachusetts, took the stand first, testifying in person that he eventually arrived at St. Joseph’s after a government crisis in 1994 led to the dissolution of the orphanage where he spent his early years.
“I slept in the street then,” Madrigal said.
He said he went to St. Joseph’s on the recommendation of a government social worker, where he received clean clothes, a place to stay and work in the kitchen. He said he was told he would start school the next year.
Madrigal claimed he was assaulted one day after Geilenfeld had given him a portable cassette player with two cassettes by Phil Collins and Bryan Adams.
“He touched my pants and said, ‘you’re cute,’” Madrigal said. “I didn’t speak English at that time.”
He claimed Geilenfeld later attempted to sexually assault him.
Madrigal’s claims of assault were echoed by a second witness, Jean Rony St. Victor, who also said he was abused by Geilenfeld as a minor.
Both witnesses claimed that Geilenfeld promised continued living stipends and travel in exchange for an unspecified “sacrifice.”
“(Geilenfeld) told me I had to ‘make the sacrifice” for the house, and I would live like a little prince,” St. Victor said in a sworn deposition taken in Port au Prince and played for the jury Thursday.
DeTroy, the attorney for Geilenfeld, declined to comment on the substance of the allegations Thursday, but noted that the testimony and depositions Thursday were not new to him or his client.
In opening arguments, DeTroy said his client is “a remarkable person … fueled by a dream to found a home for the cast-out, lost boys of Haiti.”
DeTroy rested his client’s case before the victim testimony began, after calling as a witness attorney Alain Lemithe, who defended Geilenfeld against abuse allegations in Haiti.
Lemithe discussed the process by which Geilenfeld was tried and requirements for those allegations to be proven before a judge.
“First and foremost, (a judge) needs some tangible proof,” Lemithe said. “Some certificates, some complaints and things that can lead him to conclude that indeed this act had happened.”
Court proceedings will resume at 9 a.m. Friday and are expected to enter a third week with closing arguments either Monday or Tuesday.
Full article: https://bangordailynews.com/2015/07/16/news/portland/men-alleging-priest-abused-them-in-haiti-testify-in-maine-defamation-trial/
Madeleine Davies, Welby pledges new probe into abuse, Church Times
/in International /by SOL ReformTHE Archbishop of Canterbury has promised a new investigatation into sex abuse in the Church, if the Goddard Inquiry does not begin to look into it within six months.
The pledge was made during a private meeting with survivors of clerical abuse last week. On Tuesday, one participant, Lucy Duckworth, described Archbishop Welby’s move as “a desperate, shameful, last-ditch attempt”.
The delegation was led by the Vicar of St James’s, Briercliffe, the Revd Graham Sawyer, who chairs the Church Reform Group, accompanied by Ms Duckworth, who chairs Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS), and leaders of other survivors’ organisations.
A statement issued by the Church Reform Group on Monday said that the delegation had told Archbishop Welby that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, led by Justice Lowell Goddard, “could not possibly perform a comprehensive review of all alleged cases of abuse within the Church of England”. It had called on him to fund a “comprehensive independent audit of Anglican clergy abuse to operate in a parallel and complementary manner”.
A statement from Lambeth Palace confirmed: “The Archbishop said that he has asked that the Church of England is reviewed first by the Government’s National Inquiry once it begins its investigations. If this does not happen within six months, then he will instigate an independent-led past cases review. There was no commitment to any detail.”
The founder of Enough Abuse UK, Marilyn Hawes, told the BBC that she had “every hope and belief” that the Archbishop would follow up his words. The day was a “momentous one for the survivor community”.
Ms Duckworth said on Tuesday, however: “This was stated under duress of a judge-led statutory inquiry. The Church has not recognised the increase in individual cases we have presented them with — 400 per cent in six months — or made any adequate steps to supporting survivors. Until they do, this is nothing more than words for improved public relations.”
A barrister and spokeswoman for survivors of abuse in churches, Anne Lawrence, described the promise as “ridiculous posturing . . . An institution cannot ever look into its own failures to protect and safeguard children and the vulnerable. It is blinded by institutional, cultural, and relational dynamics which render a transparent open process impossible.”
The Church should have made its 2008-09 past cases review (News, 26 February 2010) “open and transparent”, she said. “The best thing the Archbishop can do is preserve the evidence contained within thousands of files, disclose the full content of the past cases review to the public inquiry and make it public if he wishes to have transparency.”
Julian Whiting, a former police officer and survivor of private school and church abuse, who attended the meeting at Lambeth Palace, said: “I trust Justin Welby. What I don’t trust is the bureacracy and administration around him allowing him to fufil his commitment to the church and to Christ.” He also questioned what was meant by “independent inquiry”.
“What is the concept and what does it actually mean?” he said. “Are they going to use langauge to try and ‘not have a problem’ which has stifled things moving forward before.”
He described the past cases review of 2008/9 as “shocking” and indicative of an approach that was “more about ‘how do we defend the organisation?’ as opposed to reaching out in the spirit of Christ to people who desperately need help, love and understanding”.
The Goddard Inquiry began on Thursday of last week, and is expected to last five years. The inquiry has been divide into five “workstreams”. The education and religion stream will be led by Professor Malcolm Evans, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol.
The General Synod gave final approval to new safeguarding legislation on Saturday. Provisions include increased powers for bishops to suspend priests and PCC members, and the removal of any time limit on when allegations of sexual abuse can be made. It will be an explicit offence of misconduct for clerics to disregard the House of Bishops’ safeguarding guidance.
The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, who speaks for the Bishops on safeguarding, told the Synod that he was considering the reinstatement of deposition from Holy Orders (“defrocking”) as a penalty in the Clergy Discipline Measure.
Presenting the new legislation, Bishop Butler said: “Alongside having to recognise, apologise for, and face up to the consequences of past failures, we also have to acknowledge that we do not always get it right in the present.”
Failures. Last week, a former cleric, Michael Studdert, lost his appeal to be allowed to spend time with boys under 16. He was prohibited from exercising any priestly ministry within the Church of England for the rest of his life in 2007 (News, 16 August 2007), after being sentenced to four years in prison for making indecent photos of children and possessing images for distribution.
Southwark Crown Court heard last week that he wanted to spent time with two Polish families. Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “The evidence before me shows this applicant is capable of being extremely cautious about disguising his interest in children.”
Also last week, a former Truro diocesan communications officer, Jeremy Dowling, aged 77, was sentenced to seven years in jail, after pleading guilty to 13 counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 and two counts of indecency with a child. He assaulted five children from 1959 to 1971, while he was working as a teacher in Devon (News, 12 June).
Separately, a former Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Revd Timothy Bavin OSB, has apologised for his handling of complaints about a former priest who has been convicted a second time of abusing children.
Last month, Terry Knight, aged 76, from Portsmouth, was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault against a boy aged 12 or 13, in the 1980s. He was jailed in 1996 after admitting to abusing seven boys aged 11-14 between 1975 and 1985, while serving at St Saviour’s, Stamshaw.
He was sent to see Bishop Bavin in 1985 by the then Archdeacon of Portsmouth, after a complaint from a parent. Bishop Bavin accepted his word that “inappropriate behaviour” would not happen again.
Last week, the retired Bishop apologised “unreservedly to all who were let down by me and by the Church”. He said that he had been unaware that physical assault had taken place. “I believed the situation had been resolved, and was horrified to discover later that this wasn’t the case.”
A statement from the diocese said: “We apologise unreservedly that the reaction of the Church in 1985 was not more robust, and that these actions may have put others at risk.” Safeguarding had since been “transformed”, it said.
Welby pledges new probe into abuse